


It's in the Bags

by RavieSnake



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Eve, D/Hr Advent 2018, F/M, Gift Giving, Harry Potter Epilogue Compliant, Post-Hogwarts, Romance, Secret Crush, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-19
Updated: 2018-11-19
Packaged: 2019-08-25 21:26:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16668589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RavieSnake/pseuds/RavieSnake
Summary: Hermione Granger stopped home on Christmas Eve on her way to the Ministry gala only to find an intruder on her doorstep. Realizing the man was Draco Malfoy was rather a shock. Learning his reason for being there was an even bigger one.Written for the 2018 D/Hr Advent with the prompt of: velvet





	It's in the Bags

She hadn’t seen him at first when she’d pulled up to her house, nor when she’d turned into her drive.

But the moment she pulled up to her garage his movement alerted her to his presence.

Hermione Granger sat frozen in her parked car, knuckles clenched around the steering wheel as she stared at the man standing on her front step.

Smooth, platinum blond hair and pale skin illuminated by the crisp, winter moonlight reflecting off the recently fallen snow left no doubt about his identity.

Draco Malfoy was at her house.

He looked startled by her arrival and Hermione slid her hand into her purse for her wand as she swiftly exited her car.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded at once, standing behind her open driver door like a shield.

He simply stared at her, mouth slightly agape in surprise.

Hermione frowned and closed the door as she took a step closer to him. “Malfoy, what are you doing here?” she repeated a bit more forcefully, bringing her wand into his view.

Draco’s eyes first flitted over her appearance then darted to the wand in her hand before moving back to her face.

“I…” he said and then turned suddenly as if he were preparing to Disapparate.

“Don’t even think about it!” Hermione barked at him, raising her wand at him threateningly. “Tell me what you’re doing here.”

Draco eased back to face her and at the sight of her wand pointed directly at him he raised his hands in surrender.

“I didn’t think you’d be back so soon,” he said. “I…I figured you’d be at the Ministry gala.”

Hermione glanced down at what was visible of her shimmering dress beneath her coat and then glared back up at him. “I was about to be on my way there. I just took my children to my parents and realized I forgot something and came back here to get it quick. And you still didn’t answer my question.”

“I…I, uh…”

As Draco stuttered, Hermione gave him an accessing look over. When her focus fell on the small, very familiar gold velvet bag hanging by its drawstring from Draco’s right thumb, she gasped out loud.

“You burgled my home!?” she accused, taking a step toward him, jabbing her wand at his right hand. “How dare you!?”

“No...I…I didn’t…” he shook his head, eyes wide with shock as Hermione advanced in his direction.

“You’re not rich enough already, you’ve got to go about stealing from people on Christmas Eve!?” she raged, stomping right up to him and yanking the bag away from him. “Of all the foul, despicable things, Draco Malfoy!”

“I wasn’t stealing,” he tried to defend.

Hermione was having none of it. She shook the shiny bag right in his face. “Then explain this! I might have expected this of you twenty years ago, but I must say I never would have imagined such a -”

“I wasn’t stealing from you!” Draco cut her off, finally having recovered from his shock to find his proper voice. He tried to swipe for the bag and Hermione slapped his hand away with an appalled huff.

“How many of the others did you take?” she said, taking a step back out of his reach. “All of them? Give them to me this instant.”

Draco shook his head. “I didn’t take anything.”

A scornful laugh of disbelief was Hermione’s response to that. “Right. This bag just walked its way out of my wardrobe and into your hand did it? Which one is this anyway,” she said, pulling hastily at the drawstring to open the bag, “it had better not be the gold kneazle brooch or so help me…”

She tipped the velvet bag to dump its contents into her palm before Draco could say anything more and an elaborate diamond necklace poured out in a cascade of glittering shimmers.

Hermione stood motionless as she stared down at the heap of shining gems in her hand.

“I wasn’t taking,” Draco said quietly, and then after a pause added, “I was bringing.”

Hermione simply kept staring at the bag and necklace.

“And I’m happy to hear that you liked the brooch,” Draco said.

“It’s my favorite,” Hermione replied, her voice small and faraway. She shook her head, attention still on the contents of her hands. “I…I don’t…”

“You don’t what?” he asked.

She finally looked up at him.

“I’ve received a bag exactly like this one with a different gift inside nearly every Christmas since my first year at Hogwarts,” she said.

“I know,” he said.

“I never knew who sent them.”

“I know.”

Hermione had an expression of awed disbelief. “This can’t be. Every gift was so…so _personal_. So perfect for me.”

“I do have excellent attention to detail,” he said with a faint smile.

“Ronald always denied sending them, but when I didn’t get one the past two years, I thought perhaps it was him after all…”

Draco’s smile faded at that. “I didn’t feel right sending one when you were going through your divorce. And then last year…”

Hermione gave him a sad look. “Astoria,” she said in understanding. “I was sad to hear of her passing. I’m so sorry.”

He shook his head. “She and I both made peace with her illness long ago. I cared for my wife, but our relationship was always more business than it was marriage. I’ve done my mourning.”

A moment of silence fell between them then until the faint sound of distant caroling drifted in and brought Hermione’s attention back onto the items in her hand.

“I still don’t understand,” she said. She pushed her thumb delicately over one of the larger diamonds and then met his gaze once more. “It’s really been you all these years?”

Draco nodded. “This isn’t exactly how I imagined my reveal would play out. Being shouted at and accused of burglary and all,” he joked.

“But you hated me.”

“My, um, childhood ire towards you may have been… _exaggerated_ for the sake of my father’s approval,” he said.

Hermione raised a brow. “And your adult ire?”

Draco cast his gaze to the snow at that. “I’ve never been a brave man,” he admitted. “Defying my family’s traditions hasn’t been easy for me, no matter how backwards I find them to be.”

“Then why bother with these?” she asked him sincerely, holding out the bag. “Why spend the money, the _time_ when you knew nothing would ever come of it. I mean…you sent me one of these when I was on the run our seventh year. The amount of time it must’ve taken to charm that bag to appear where I was under all of my wards...I can’t imagine.”

Draco shrugged. “Incidentally, you’ve got better at doing your wards. I couldn’t figure out how to send it this year. Thus my presence here tonight. I was just going to leave it on the door, by the way. I never intended to violate your home.”

Hermione let the necklace dangle from her fingers as she held it up. “But why, Malfoy? If up until a year ago it seemed impossible for anything to ever happen between us, why keep on with it? What is the point of these gifts?”

“I didn’t care if anything ever happened between us,” he nearly shouted. He looked embarrassed with himself, but he went on as he awkwardly ran a hand over his scalp. “I mean…in my fantasies something always happened between us, but…it was… Even if you’d never discovered it was me, even if we lived to two hundred and you never even thought of me, every galleon I ever spent and every hour it took to send those bags would’ve still been worth it.”

He reached forward and gently took the necklace from her fingers into his own. He looked down at it as he went on. “I’ve not had many happy moments in my life. Even as a child. I’ve always felt alone. And then of course you know all about the disaster that was my adolescence. There were many times I wanted to just…end it all.”

The distant carolers began a new joyous hymn and a rather nostalgic smile pulled at Draco’s mouth as he continued his confession.

“But every Christmas I’d send your bag,” he said, “and the knowledge that I’d been able to give you joy even in the smallest amount, made me… _happy_. If I could give the woman I’ve secretly loved for most of my life a moment of pure happiness once a year, then I had something to live for. I’d make a new bag every Boxing Day and hang it up in my room where I could see it throughout the year, to remind me that my life might be worth something. Even if only to give you cat jewelry.”

“Malfoy…” Hermione exclaimed in a whisper.

Draco let out a sad chuckle. “Sixth year that bag stayed on me at all times,” he said.

Hermione took a step closer to him. “Why did you never tell me?”

“I told you, I’ve never been a brave man,” he said. “I don’t know how I’m even telling you all of this now.”

“Because I’ve got you at wand point after having caught you uninvited on my doorstep with what I thought was stolen property and made you explain yourself?” she said. The lighthearted tone of her voice actually caused him to let out a small laugh.

“Yes, there’s that,” he said.

They stood there then in the cold of the night, simply staring at one another for a moment until Draco finally held his hand out with the necklace to give it back to her. “I suppose I ought to be going then,” he said. “I wouldn’t want you to be late for the gala.”

Hermione looked for a moment like she were about to refuse the gift, but she reached out and took it carefully from him. “Thank you,” she said softly. She shifted the necklace in her palm and couldn’t help but smile at the way it sparkled. “This is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever received. It’s much more expensive than anything else you’ve ever given, surely.”

“I wanted to make up for the two years I missed,” Draco shrugged. “I’m glad you like it.”

He turned as if to go but Hermione took another step in his direction. “Aren’t you going to help me put it on?” she asked.

Draco blinked at her. “Really?” he said, his voice guardedly optimistic.

Hermine nodded as she let him take the diamonds back from her. “It just so happens that this necklace will match my dress perfectly,” she smiled.

She turned about and lifted her hair and Draco took the cue to fasten the jewels delicately around her neck. When he was done, she faced him again and met his gaze.

“I wish there were something I could give you,” Hermione said.

“Knowing that you’ve kept and enjoyed my gifts all these years is present enough, Granger,” he said. “You have no idea.”

Draco took her hand in his then and lifted it to his lips. “Happy Christmas,” he said after a kiss to her knuckles. He lowered her hand and then turned to leave again.

Hermione watched him take a few steps down her snowy front pavement and then called out to him. “Malfoy!?”

He stopped and looked over his shoulder at her. “Yes?”

She walked forward to meet him. “I…I wonder if you might accompany me to the gala?” she offered.

Draco’s mouth pulled up into a small smirk in spite of himself. “As your date?”

Hermione bit at her lip to try and hide the rather excited smile she suddenly couldn’t seem to control. “Yes,” she said. “Yes, I think…I think I’d like to see where this goes. That is, if you want to as well?”

At his nod she waved her wand before him and his outfit transfigured into a set of fine dressrobes.

Draco looked down at his new attire and smiled. “I’m finding I’m quite glad you forgot something this evening and caught me. Funny how things work out, hmm?”

“Indeed,” Hermione said, slipping her arm through his to tug him toward her car. Draco pointed back at the house as he allowed himself to be escorted along.

“Didn’t you need to get something?” he asked.

She shook her head.

“I’d forgotten to put on my necklace,” she said.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to all who nominated me to participate this year! I hope I didn't disappoint with this little story. Merry Christmas!!


End file.
